A History of the Origins, Evolution, and Impact of Heart Disease Epidemiology in the U.S. (1945-1990)

FAIN: FA-53395-07

Gerald M. Oppenheimer
CUNY Research Foundation, Brooklyn College (Brooklyn, NY 11210-2850)

My objective is to write the first half of a social and intellectual history of the origins, development and eventual diffusion of epidemiological thinking within the U.S. It will focus on heart disease, critical to the evolution of modern, post-war epidemiology, particularly its success in conceptualizing non-infectious chronic disease as the consequence of multiple “risks” within living societies, its creation of logical techniques and a mathematics to study such disorders, and its formulation, in the face of recurrent skepticism about risk factors and causality, of clinical and public health interventions.